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Complement C3 deficiency protects against neurodegeneration in aged plaque-rich APP/PS1 mice.

ABSTRACT: The complement cascade not only is an innate immune response that enables removal of pathogens but also plays an important role in microglia-mediated synaptic refinement during brain development. Complement C3 is elevated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), colocalizing with neuritic plaques, and appears to contribute to clearance of A? by microglia in the brain. Previously, we reported that C3-deficient C57BL/6 mice were protected against age-related and region-specific loss of hippocampal synapses and cognitive decline during normal aging. Furthermore, blocking complement and downstream iC3b/CR3 signaling rescued synapses from A?-induced loss in young AD mice before amyloid plaques had accumulated. We assessed the effects of C3 deficiency in aged, plaque-rich APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mice (APP/PS1;C3 KO). We examined the effects of C3 deficiency on cognition, A? plaque deposition, and plaque-related neuropathology at later AD stages in these mice. We found that 16-month-old APP/PS1;C3 KO mice performed better on a learning and memory task than did APP/PS1 mice, despite having more cerebral A? plaques. Aged APP/PS1;C3 KO mice also had fewer microglia and astrocytes localized within the center of hippocampal A? plaques compared to APP/PS1 mice. Several proinflammatory cytokines in the brain were reduced in APP/PS1;C3 KO mice, consistent with an altered microglial phenotype. C3 deficiency also protected APP/PS1 mice against age-dependent loss of synapses and neurons. Our study suggests that complement C3 or downstream complement activation fragments may play an important role in A? plaque pathology, glial responses to plaques, and neuronal dysfunction in the brains of APP/PS1 mice.

SUBMITTER: Shi Q

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936623 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Complement C3 deficiency protects against neurodegeneration in aged plaque-rich APP/PS1 mice.

Shi Qiaoqiao Q Chowdhury Saba S Ma Rong R Le Kevin X KX Hong Soyon S Caldarone Barbara J BJ Stevens Beth B Lemere Cynthia A CA

Science translational medicine 20170501 392

The complement cascade not only is an innate immune response that enables removal of pathogens but also plays an important role in microglia-mediated synaptic refinement during brain development. Complement C3 is elevated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), colocalizing with neuritic plaques, and appears to contribute to clearance of Aβ by microglia in the brain. Previously, we reported that C3-deficient C57BL/6 mice were protected against age-related and region-specific loss of hippocampal synapses an ...[more]

PMID: 28566429

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Exposure to benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) was associated with cognitive impairments and some Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like pathological changes. However, it is largely unknown whether BaP exposure participates in the disease progression of AD. OBJECTIVES:To investigate the effect of BaP exposure on AD progression and its underlying mechanisms. METHODS:BaP or vehicle was administered to 4-month-old APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic (APP/PS1) mice and wildtype (WT) mice for 2?months. Learning and memory ability and exploratory behaviors were evaluated 1?month after the initiation/termination of BaP exposure. AD-like pathological and biochemical alterations were examined 1?month after 2-month BaP exposure. Levels of soluble beta-amyloid (A?) oligomers and the number of A? plaques in the cortex and the hippocampus were quantified. Gene expression profiling was used to evaluate alternation of genes/pathways associated with AD onset and progression. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to demonstrate neuronal loss and neuroinflammation in the cortex and the hippocampus. Treatment of primary neuron-glia cultures with aged A? (a mixture of monomers, oligomers, and fibrils) and/or BaP was used to investigate mechanisms by which BaP enhanced A?-induced neurodegeneration. RESULTS:BaP exposure induced progressive decline in spatial learning/memory and exploratory behaviors in APP/PS1 mice and WT mice, and APP/PS1 mice showed severer behavioral deficits than WT mice. Moreover, BaP exposure promoted neuronal loss, A? burden and A? plaque formation in APP/PS1 mice, but not in WT mice. Gene expression profiling showed most robust alteration in genes and pathways related to inflammation and immunoregulatory process, A? secretion and degradation, and synaptic formation in WT and APP/PS1 mice after BaP exposure. Consistently, the cortex and the hippocampus of WT and APP/PS1 mice displayed activation of microglia and astroglia and upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and NADPH oxidase (three widely used neuroinflammatory markers) after BaP exposure. Furthermore, BaP exposure aggravated neurodegeneration induced by aged A? peptide in primary neuron-glia cultures through enhancing NADPH oxidase-derived oxidative stress. CONCLUSION:Our study showed that chronic exposure to environmental pollutant BaP induced, accelerated, and exacerbated the progression of AD, in which elevated neuroinflammation and NADPH oxidase-derived oxidative insults were key pathogenic events.

Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by initial memory impairments that progress to dementia. In this sense, synaptic dysfunction and loss have been established as the pathological features that best correlate with the typical early cognitive decline in this disease. At the histopathological level, post mortem AD brains typically exhibit intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) along with the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides in the form of extracellular deposits. Specifically, the oligomeric soluble forms of Abeta are considered the most synaptotoxic species. In addition, neuritic plaques are Abeta deposits surrounded by activated microglia and astroglia cells together with abnormal swellings of neuronal processes named dystrophic neurites. These periplaque aberrant neurites are mostly presynaptic elements and represent the first pathological indicator of synaptic dysfunction. In terms of losing synaptic proteins, the hippocampus is one of the brain regions most affected in AD patients. In this work, we report an early decline in spatial memory, along with hippocampal synaptic changes, in an amyloidogenic APP/PS1 transgenic model. Quantitative electron microscopy revealed a spatial synaptotoxic pattern around neuritic plaques with significant loss of periplaque synaptic terminals, showing rising synapse loss close to the border, especially in larger plaques. Moreover, dystrophic presynapses were filled with autophagic vesicles in detriment of the presynaptic vesicular density, probably interfering with synaptic function at very early synaptopathological disease stages. Electron immunogold labeling showed that the periphery of amyloid plaques, and the associated dystrophic neurites, was enriched in Abeta oligomers supporting an extracellular location of the synaptotoxins. Finally, the incubation of primary neurons with soluble fractions derived from 6-month-old APP/PS1 hippocampus induced significant loss of synaptic proteins, but not neuronal death. Indeed, this preclinical transgenic model could serve to investigate therapies targeted at initial stages of synaptic dysfunction relevant to the prodromal and early AD.

Dataset Information

Complement C3 deficiency protects against neurodegeneration in aged plaque-rich APP/PS1 mice.

Publications

Complement C3 deficiency protects against neurodegeneration in aged plaque-rich APP/PS1 mice.

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